The World Online
chapter-1222

12th month, 10th day, Shu Lands Province near West Xia.

The moment news of Tolei's army beating the West Xia army's main force outside of Xingqing House spread out, Bear legion corps marshal Li Mu ordered the 1st legion to creep into West Xia.

Li Mu was trying to take advantage of the time lapse.

Moreover, at this moment, neither West Xia emperor Li Yuanhao requested help from Great Xia, nor did Ouyang Shuo give a military order.

...

Li Yuanhao was not an emperor that gave up easily.

During the following few days, Tolei gave up on sieging and led troops to chase down Yeli Wangrong's forces; this was what the Mongol cavalry were most proficient at.

After having that poor start and being chased by the enemy cavalry now, the aggressive West Xia army did not even have time to take a breath. They had a city, but they could not enter, they had a house, but they could not return, making one feel extremely sullen.

Tolei was really smart, flexible in his strategy and use of troops. After ambushing the enemy, he immediately changed his battle plan from sieging to wiping out the remaining enemy forces.

As long as the main West Xia army was wiped out, how would they be able to hold on?

Every day was a huge torture for the Xingqing House.

Looking at the army outside of the city being eaten part by part by the Mongol cavalry, Li Yuanhao was really anxious. He was not willing to just wait for his death, which was why he ordered Yeli Wangrong to lead his troops back to the city using the night as cover on the 13th day.

That night, the color of the moon was like blood.

When Yeli Wangrong tried to use misdirection to break away from the chasing enemy and swiftly flee toward the city gate, the Mongol cavalry were like a pack of wolves that had smelled blood and chased closely behind.

This astonished Yeli Wangrong. He could not imagine how the enemy saw through his tricks in such a short amount of time and caught up.

He did not know that the Mongol cavalry were best at tracking.

If they could use this chance to break through the city gates, it would be a huge boon for the Mongol army.

How could the West Xia army let them get what they wished?

To block the Mongol army and cover the main force retreating into the city, 20 thousand West Xia soldiers sacrificed themselves. They gathered into a formation outside of the city to fight valiantly, not returning unless they died.

Seeing that, the defending soldiers on the city wall teared up.

Only when the dead of night arrived did the Mongol army cut down the West Xia troops that were covering. They knew that they could not successfully charge into the city, so they proudly retreat like a wave, disappearing into the night sky.

The corpses outside of the city were their masterpiece.

...

On the 14th day, the battle situation became clearer and clearer.

The West Xia army were like turtles in Xingqing House, trying to rely on the city to defend. After a short rest, Yeli Wanrong led his troops onto the city wall to prepare for an intense battle against the Mongol army early in the morning.

However, in the end, the Mongol army did not even siege that day.

Seeing that, the hearts of both Yeli Wangrong and West Xia Emperor Li Yuanhao shook. They felt a bad premonition. After a month of battles, they had a clear understanding of Tolei's style.

This was a general that used unorthodox methods that looked surprising and useless but struck the weaknesses of the enemy.

The weird actions of the Mongol army signaled definite changes.

The truth was just that. After the West Xia army retreated into the city, Tolei lost interest in sieging. He gave up on the city and decided to take down the entire West Xia instead.

That day, Tolei personally led 100 thousand troops to camp outside Xingqing House while the rest spread out in an unrestrained manner through the West Xia land. They pillaged and robbed, seemingly aiming to clean out the entire West Xia.

The situation seemed to have returned to the start.

The only difference was that half of the 500 thousand West Xia army was lost and were turtling up, unable to be of any use.

On the contrary, the Mongol cavalry were getting braver and braver.

On the 16th day, Tolei contacted the Empire to ask them to send people to receive West Xia, arrogant to the max.

At this stage, West Xia was already on its last legs. That day, the stubborn Li Yuanhao finally admitted defeat and informed Great Xia that as long as they were able to protect the riches of the Li Family and aid West Xia, he would submit to Great Xia.

As for surrendering to the Mongol Empire? That was impossible.

After a few rounds of battles, both sides were blood enemies, and this would never change.

...

Great Xia's efficiency was truly amazing.

Once Ouyang Shuo received the report from the Honglu Temple, he immediately informed northwest warzone commander Li Jing to send troops to West Xia. The moment Li Jing got the order, he instantly led the Eagle legion corps' four legions into West Xia.

Just a day had passed when the first battle broke out.

That day, the 1st legion that had entered West Xia long ago swiftly surrounded Muqali's forces before they could react and smashed them under Chen Tang's lead.

While Tolei was leading the army to attack Xingqing House, Muqali's troops were resting up. How could they expect enemies to surround them right after they received news of Great Xia entering?

He had no time to defend and immediately took a loss.

The fall of Muqali's army was like a bolt of lightning flashing through the night sky of West Xia. This signaled that this country destruction battle that started because of a grain crisis was facing a new turning point.

When Tolei got the report, his expression could not help but turn solemn.

In front of him were two options. One was to bring back the huge quantity of finances and resources that they had pillaged and return to the grasslands, basically completing the pre-war targets.

The second choice was to ignore them and take down Xingqing House.

Xingqing House was the capital of West Xia and had much riches and lots of grain prepared. If they could take down this city, the Mongol army could eat till their bellies were filled, and they would not have anything to worry about.

Once they took down the city, they would be able to choose between retreating or defending.

Such a temptation was something Tolei could not resist.

For this south conquering expedition of West Xia, Genghis Khan had appointed Muqali as the main general and him as the deputy. In the end, Muqali's forces lost terribly, while his troops achieved successive victories, earning many spoils of war.

He had obtained great merit.

If he could take down Xingqing House, he would solve the Empire's grain crisis. The next house that the Empire sets up would be the house of Tolei.

The Tolei that appeared in the wilderness was different from the one in history.

The Tolei in history was a pure general and only knew how to fight wars. In the end, he was killed due to the wariness of his brother, Ogedai.

Luckily, his children were useful and took control of the bloodline of the Yuan Dynasty. Even if Tolei himself was not willing, he had to consider for his children and take control of a house.

"Send my orders; tell all troops to gather up to siege!" Tolei made up his mind.

"Yes!"

With the military order given, Xingqing House fell into a tough battle.

...

Let us talk about the Great Xia Eagle legion corps.

After the 1st legion took down Muqali's forces, they did not chase the win and did not charge to save Xingqing House. Instead, they were ordered by Li Mu to split into five and sweep up from south to north.

The Eagle legion corps obviously was not doing so to root out West Xia troop. Instead, they were clearing out the Mongol cavalry, not letting any of them go.

Hence, the Eagle legion corps pushed forward with the aura of kings with really high morale.

After they 'recovered' a piece of land, they would spread the name of the Xia King, "The Xia King is kind and could not bear to see the West Xia people get killed, which was why he sent reinforcements."

They bought the hearts of the West Xia people just like that.

In chaotic times, whoever could protect their safety and return them peace would be their savior and king.

West Xia and the Shu Lands were connected, and the Qiang Race of both regions were related. Their lives became really prosperous after submitting to Great Xia, much to the envy of the West Xia Qiang Race people.

Since the Great Xia Army had arrived, they were obviously warmly welcomed.

On the contrary, West Xia's emperor Li Yuanhao had not done much since entering the wilderness. He could not expand and could not protect their safety, making them feel really disappointed.

Especially when hundreds of thousands of civilians were killed by the Mongols at Xingqing House not long ago. Their blood flowed into rivers, and the hearts of the West Xia people turned cold.

Although Li Yuanhao was helpless and could do nothing about it, the people could not forgive him from an emotional standpoint.

Under such a background, the Eagle legion corps faced no resistance. They were warmly welcomed by the people everywhere they went. Furthermore, the Qiang Race were a sturdy bunch, and some even led the army to surround the hiding Mongol cavalry.

These operations went unusually smooth.

The Mongol cavalry that were pillaging and robbing so valiantly immediately became like rats on the streets; everyone was shouting to beat them up.

Although Tolei had ordered the troops to gather, 100 thousand of them had spread out; it was not so easy to gather up.

To the Mongol cavalry that were out pillaging, this was a great opportunity. While they pillaged for the Empire, keeping some for themselves was logical and reasonable.

There were even some Mongol armies that set rules that the troops only needed to hand over 80% of the riches and they could keep the rest.

The troops whose eyes had turned red with greed from all the snatching were not so easily recalled with just a single military order.

The forces did not dare to openly go against the order, but they could easily find a reason like sudden rain or bridges breaking making it tough to travel and say that they had to take another path, resulting in a delay.

Similar excuses were easy to find and in abundance.

If it were not for the strict Mongol army discipline and Tolei ruling with an iron fist, who knows when these 100 thousand troops would be gathered up.

However, the moment the Great Xia Eagle legion corps arrived, these Mongol cavalry were like rabbits meeting eagles and ran faster than anyone else toward Xingqing House.

Especially the army that was scattered throughout the south. They were afraid that the Eagle legion corps would catch up to them, so they sometimes had to throw their riches that they had pillaged like garbage in order to flee.

It was not because the Mongol cavalry were weak or because the Great Xia Army was so strong. It was because they knew that along with the Great Xia Army moving in, the entire battle situation would turn on its head.

Before this, the Qiang Race people could only hide in the mountains and try to survive, and they did not dare to fight back facing the attacks of the Mongol cavalry.

Now, with the Great Xia troops involved, the situation immediately changed.

Before the Great Xia Army had even arrived, the local Qiang people had got down from the mountains to meet them. The way that they looked at the Mongol cavalry also became weird.

Under such circumstances, how could the Mongol cavalry dare to remain arrogant?

If things went wrong, even before the Great Xia Army rushed over, they would be torn to shreds by the strong Qiang people.